


Inseparable

by Cadoan



Category: Assassin's Creed
Genre: Assassin's Creed: Rogue, Character Study, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, M/M, Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-04
Updated: 2014-12-04
Packaged: 2018-02-28 02:26:45
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,018
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2715530
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cadoan/pseuds/Cadoan
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Liam and Shay had met when they were both very young. To Liam, it felt like they had known each other their whole lives.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Inseparable

**Author's Note:**

> A drabble-y thing I wrote about a pairing I feel had so much potential. I messed around a bit with the time line and ages of the two since it didn't really make sense in my head as it is stated on the wiki.

Liam and Shay had met when they were both very young. To Liam, it felt like they had known each other their whole lives. Actually, Liam couldn’t recall much before Shay become an everyday part of his life. Sure, he remembered the hardships on the farm where he grew up, but he didn’t really remember specifics. Those first years of his life before his family moved to New York was one blur of sweat, tears and aching muscles. The O’Briens had worked extremely hard every day to survive on that godforsaken farm, but eventually they had been forced to do just as many others were forced to do; sell whatever they could and head for the big city. His father found work in the loud, bustling city, and the O’Briens were doing better than they ever had. 

It was with work that Liam first had met Shay. He remembered it clearly. They had both been teens, who had both had led hard lives, rougher than any child should have. They quickly became inseparable. Shay was also born from Irish immigrants, but he had lived his whole life in the rough parts of New York, which meant that he knew the city in a whole other way than Liam did. The city was in his blood. Five years separated them, but they protected each other and learned from each other as equals. Shay taught Liam how to survive in the city, how to navigate the streets, taught him the city as well as he knew the back of his hand. Liam helped Shay to stay out of trouble. Or, well, as it mostly was, get out of trouble. Liam made sure Shay didn’t get too badly beaten up.

Back then, Shay had been a lanky teen. Tousled, brown hair, more than not falling into his equally brown, intelligent eyes. He always had a half smirk playing on his lips and he always held his head high. A bit too high, some would say, for someone coming from the slums of New York. He’d laugh a bit too loud at the wrong people, and Liam would have to come to the rescue, mostly as the role of an extra pair of fists in the right side of the fight.

Shay had been Liam’s first love. It is really not so strange, that something more than a friendship would grow between two people like that. They fought together, they laughed together, they bled together. They understood each other. That time was a happy time for Liam, because Liam had too, been Shay’s first love. If the first few years of his life had been a blur, this time was the exact opposite. Liam remembered this time as a series of memories in sharp detail. A stolen kiss behind a house corner. A longing look while walking in public. A hand that stayed just a bit too long on a shoulder. The salty taste of sweat as Liam kissed Shay’s chest. The first time Liam took Shay. The first time Shay took Liam.

Then, there came some dark years. After his father had taken the blame for the murder Liam had committed, Liam lost sight. He could not face his mother, so he left his home. His obsession with overthrowing his employer had already put a strain on whatever it was that he and Shay had. Shay had really tried to get through to him after his father had been executed, but Liam just pushed him away. The inseparable ones were now separated. During those dark years, he did things he wasn’t proud of, said things he wished he hadn’t, ended lives that shouldn’t have been ended.

Many, many years later, Shay had walked back into his life, quite literally. Liam was now a part of the assassin order and had managed to crawl out of that dark pit he had fallen into after his father’s death. One night, he had been sitting in a New York tavern, on a mission for the order. Apparently some kind of Templar meeting was supposed to take place in this place sometime soon, but this night, none of the people he was looking for showed. The one who showed however, was Shay. Liam was just about to get up from his place by a table some distance away from the door when a man walked in. Liam recognized him immediately and his breath caught in his throat. Shay was now, just as himself, not a teen anymore, but a man. The tousled hair still fell into his eyes, but his jaw was more marked, his chin sporting a trimmed beard and a moustache. Liam had heard that the ship that Shay’s father was on had been lost in a storm, and Shay, his father and the crew was presumed dead. Before Liam could think of his action, he had stood up and taken two strides to the man. First, Shay looked confused, but after a second or so, confusion turned into disbelief.

That night were spent in the small, rickety bed in one of the assassin safehouses spread around New York. They made love roughly, desperately, as if trying to make up for lost years. Now, it was Shay who were the broken man. Liam helped him all he could, and eventually introduced Shay to the world of the Brotherhood. Liam owed everything to the Brotherhood, and he hoped that also Shay would find his path again.

The night Shay threw himself off the cliff at the homestead, something changed within Liam. He became a lot more like the person he had been during those dark years. He became more of an animal, killing for the shedding of blood, not only because he was ordered to. He accepted the most dangerous of missions, travelled to where the Templars had last been seen, part of him hoping that his life would be claimed in battle. The other part of him wished that his travels would take him closer to Shay. With Shay’s betrayal, it felt as if the most human part of him was taken away.


End file.
